Latest release: The synth-heavy Octopus Kool Aid, his third album this year alone.

Why you care: When the world last saw Omar
Rodriguez-Lopez, he looked like someone silently begging for a sniper to
put a bullet in his brain. Onstage this past summer for a spate of
high-profile shows with reunited post-hardcore heroes At the Drive-In,
the guitarist performed with all the enthusiasm of a guy who only agreed
to the gigs to help an estranged bandmate pay off his gambling
debts—which, frankly, is the only possible explanation for why ATD-I
ever decided to get back together. After the band’s acrimonious split in
2001, Rodriguez-Lopez and lead bleater Cedric Bixler-Zavala formed
prog-punk behemoth the Mars Volta, whose rather astounding success gave
the duo carte blanche to follow through with whatever outre projects
happened to pop into their Afro-topped heads. In Rodriguez-Lopez’s case,
that’s meant putting out an endless stream of noodling guitar and synth
explorations, with various backing musicians cycling in and out of his
employ (his current touring band is a female-fronted four-piece called
Bosnian Rainbows). Why give up that freedom and go back to playing
decade-old songs if not to save an old friend from having his kneecaps
broken? Needless to say, Rodriguez-Lopez is probably relieved to return
to this setting, playing whatever he wants, with little regard for the
amount of self-indulgence the audience can endure.